June Rares

June is always a good month for rarities in Finland, combined with the last of the breeders arriving, such as Blyth's Reed Warbler, Marsh Warbler and River Warbler.

On Sunday I made an early morning trip to Suomenoja to look for nightsingers. 

Straight out of the car, a River Warbler burst into it's sewing machine song right by the car park.

The bird was quite mobile, but with a bit of patience the bird eventually showed itself, giving excellent albeit brief views.

River Warbler - these are the scarcest of the regularly breeding nightsingers (if that makes sense). Savi's warbler is rarer (though expected to colonize) and Lanceolated Warbler (if it ever does manage to breed) is obviously pretty mega. 

River Warbler - just as I switched to video he decided to stop singing. Typical.

The current estimates for River Warbler is somewhere between 1000 and 2000 pairs, but these are quite spread out and random. It's not often you get River Warbler in the same location 2 years running, though sites like Suomenoja and Iso Huopalahti do manage it. 

There were plenty of Blyth's Reed Warbler singing in the area too. 

Blyth's Reed Warbler - I had to laugh reading an Irish "guru" (I'd call him a gobshite, personally) describing Blyth's as "dull as dishwater" and lacking yellow colour.

The reality is that Blyth's is a metamorph. They come in sandy browns, grey, greenish tones, buff, white, off-white and like this one, yellowish. They can be quite, quite variable and this should never be underestimated.

Thrush Nightingale, as you would expect, were also in abundance. Amazing singers. 

Thrush Nightingale - the true night king. Their reputation for being skulky is unwarranted, and likely relates to late summer periods when they go quiet. Catch them in the first few weeks when the arrive and they're dead easy. Trrrrrrrr. 😍

I then moved on to Laajalahti briefly to year tick Broad-Billed Sandpiper. A flock of 12 gave themselves up easily enough, with Great Reed Warbler also being a handy new bird for the year, as was this drake Garganey.

News then came out of a female Red-Footed Falcon in Saltfjarden, so I decided to go see that. It gave decent views as it actively hunted around the marsh. Always a nice summer rarity.

The usual breeding Yellow Wagtails were performing well.

I then moved on to Kantvik dump, a place I fancy for some shrike, Hoopoe or lark of some sort.

This Slow Worm greeted me at the entrance.

The dump was fairly quiet, save for a pair of Red-Backed Shrike giving excellent views. 

During the week I managed to nip out for a few hours, heading to Saltfjarden for seconds of the Red-Foot. It kept it's distance at the far side of the wetland, but decent views nonetheless. 

A pair of Woodlark gathering food for young near Jarso were a nice treat. 

I then returned home, where my wife was in the garden entertaining some guests. 

I asked if they had seen anything from the garden to which she replied they hadn't really been looking.

I then raised my bins to scan over the trees to our east...and was immediately greeted with the sight of a European Bee-eater gliding past.

Very casually I said "There's a Bee-eater there."

My wife lost it. "WHAT????!!!!" "GIVE ME YOUR BINS, I'VE NEVER SEEN ONE IN FINLAND!"

She mugged me. She stole my bins and spent the next minute or so enjoying the rarest bird we've ever had in the garden (Bee-eater is a national rarity).

I was forced to watch it circling with the naked eye, before it carried on south.

The incredible fluke of this floored the both of us. Had I returned a minute later, the bird would not have been found. 

Destiny one might say.